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  1. #16
    dansautodetailing.com Stokdgs's Avatar
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    Re: Why so many hours?

    Quote Originally Posted by wannafbody View Post
    I pretty much agree with Mike. Over the years I`ve seen posts by "pros" talking about how long it took to detail a car with a PC. There were guys on this site who`d wetsand and polish out with a PC. What a joke. They could cut the time by 3/4 if they learned how to use a rotary and a wool pad on hammered cars and follow up with a Flex.

    The biggest issue with guys using a rotary and large pads is splatter. Smaller pads seem to work better. An extra wash step would be needed to clean. Still with care, it`s manageable. The other thing I think some of these guys might be doing is that if they just have one job for the day, they milk it out to increase what they are charging.

    The only vehicles that truly deserve that amount of time are trailer queens or exotics where the owner is willing to pay for perfection.

    I see people on the internet with splatter all over the place and wonder why are you doing that???
    It makes so much more work for you !!! Stop doing that !!!

    Too much product, too wet a pad, too fast a speed = endless splatter = user error...
    Dan F
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  2. #17
    dansautodetailing.com Stokdgs's Avatar
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    Re: Why so many hours?

    Quote Originally Posted by yamabob View Post
    That is absurd. I starting detailing in ‘78 and painting in ‘83. I switched to bikes in the 2000’s. I never delivered anything without cutting and buffing ( in the old days colors and when we were using single stage lacquers). Hell I can wet sand and polish out the marks in about 16- 20 max. I think it gives them in their own minds credence to their methodology or workmanship. If they are just correcting then they are surely not a pro
    Yes ! Loved the Dupont and RM acrylic lacquer best and their acrylic enamel next..
    Dan F

  3. #18
    dansautodetailing.com Stokdgs's Avatar
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    Re: Why so many hours?

    Quote Originally Posted by Lonnie View Post
    I shake my head at pics of the condition of new vehicles as received by the customer from the dealer posted in this forum that many of you professional detailers do. I was under the impression that the "additional dealer prep charges" was to remove them, not add them (Dealer-Installed Swirl Option or DISO)
    Like I`ve said a gazillion times before, a lot of you detailers are making good money removing DISO`s and the pictures prove it.
    It has been this way for many years now.. Some auto makers are worse than others..
    For many years, Tesla was leading the way in producing the best electric cars with the most paint defects, hands down...
    The last few I did not long ago were all scratched, swirled, and even damaged in places where one had to be very careful installing something, say a tail light, to insure all the mounting tabs went exactly into the holes and were not hitting the paintwork below because you missed the opening...

    Yes, some Dealerships are better at "fixing" these defects when the car comes off the truck, and of course, some are not.. And some like Tesla, do not even try to fix any paintwork defects...
    Dan F

  4. #19

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    Re: Why so many hours?

    Quote Originally Posted by Oneheadlite View Post
    I love this place.

    I`d never heard that either, and feel like this is the kind of place you learn that kinda thing.
    That orange peel discussion came up a long time ago, before David B sold the forum, when was that, 2010? The way I remember it is that when they started to use the 2-sided galvanized panels the galvanize was not as smooth as the upper panels and the finish did not look uniform, so they WANTED the orange peel to be the dominant appearance so that you couldn`t see the substrate difference between various substrates, which were all slightly different--plain steel, galvanized steel, aluminum, reinforced plastics, etc. IIRC there was some pretty heated discussion about this, I think there was some member who didn`t believe they were doing orange peel on purpose...who was that? Oh yeah, it was me. I believe it was David Fermani that educated us about this, although I`m not sure he provided the rationale, which is why some of us (er, me) didn`t believe it until we researched it a bit.
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  5. #20

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    Re: Why so many hours?

    ^^^^Professor Setec Astronomy:
    Thanks for the history lesson. Did not know (or remember) this; nor was I totally "correct" about vehicle production sheet metal flaws.
    I assumed the flaws were from the panel stamping process, now that vehicle exterior designs are not changes for many production model years, and hence, the panel stamping dies are used for many years to save money..
    GB detailer

  6. #21
    wannafbody
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    Re: Why so many hours?

    I know someone who owns a 66 GTO. I was told that between sanding, paint, wetsanding and buffing he had about 600 hours in it. I`m sure that he block sanded after primer and then between multiple coats of clear. I`ve seen the car in person and the paint is spectacular. That`s overkill for any car other than a true show car.
    Likes Stokdgs liked this post

  7. #22
    Keep the Blues Alive! BadgerRivFan's Avatar
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    Re: Why so many hours?

    Quote Originally Posted by wannafbody View Post
    I know someone who owns a 66 GTO. I was told that between sanding, paint, wetsanding and buffing he had about 600 hours in it. I`m sure that he block sanded after primer and then between multiple coats of clear. I`ve seen the car in person and the paint is spectacular. That`s overkill for any car other than a true show car.
    I would consider a restored ‘66 GTO a “show car”... especially if someone spent 600 hours on the paintwork.
    Al S.

    ​"Blues done made me wild... got deep down in my soul"
    - Buddy Guy
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  8. #23

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    Re: Why so many hours?

    Yamabob- I apparently started doing this stuff around the same time you did. Doing ss white by hand, or even by v1.0 PC could indeed take a long time (I thought the PC was broken since my Cyclo did the work so much faster). And I`ve spend entire afternoons removing fingernail scratches from behind Audi door handles. But those situations were back in the days of old-tech products. Today, M101/etc. can do those behind-doorhandle jobs in a few minutes.

    I can take weeks to do a whole vehicle, but that`s not continuous effort. I still take a lot longer than many people, but I`m constantly stopping to check my results/inspect/etc. if only because on most of my vehicles I don`t want to waste a single unnecessary micron of clear. And if I spend six hours doing inaccessible areas by hand...well, you can spend a long time on stuff nobody else ever sees

    BUT..

    When a *Pro* says "XXX Hours" I absolutely agree that something`s wrong. That reminds me of how [a well-known Detailing "personality"] would talk about "getting the clearcoat uniformly level to within one micron" or somesuch. [sarcasm] yeah, right [/sarcasm] Or when people do the Burnishing thing on daily drivers that`re gonna get marred up again anyhow

    Now when Mike Phillips does a M07-restore job on old ss, that`s different! Jobs like that can indeed take countless hours, at least the first time. But cases like that aren`t the norm.

    I suspect a lot of "I spent XXX hours on this one!" is just posturing, trying to sound all "meticulous". But heh heh, gee...it occurs to me that I`ve checked out so few C&B/etc. threads that I dunno if I`ve ever actually seen somebody claim that more than a few times.
    Thanks yamabob thanked for this post

  9. #24
    wannafbody
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    Re: Why so many hours?

    I saw a comment by someone elsewhere where he was talking about doing 20 passes per panel. To me, if your doing that many passes you need a more aggressive product, pad or machine. Seems like a waste of time.
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  10. #25
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    Re: Why so many hours?

    I don`t see how some of you professionals can do this detailing for a living. I am just an amateur that does his own vehicle. This spring I think I spent a total of 8 hours doing a cleaning, polishing and a wax, but that includes 5 minute breaks every 15 to 20 minutes(arms and hands get tired holding the polisher and or rags wiping). If I remember I spent about 6+ hours the first day doing a wipe down, a polish and another wipe down and then I applied wax. Arms, and me, were so tired I left the wax on overnight and removed it the following morning, that was another 1+ hour with a few breaks to relax. Wasn`t the best job I have done on my vehicle but good enough for a pickup and it looked better than it did when I bought it from the dealership used 2 years ago. If I would have had to spend 20-50 hours to do it I would have drove it to a dealership and traded it off.
    Dean.
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  11. #26

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    Re: Why so many hours?

    Heh heh...wonder if anybody else is in the same boat I am with my New Normal Vision; inspections that used to take me literally *seconds* now can take, again *literally*, minutes. It`s a huge PIA/consumer of my time...and not just with auto Detailing either [whine whine whine ]. But hey, it sure beats blindness.

    wannafbody- That whole "wasting time with all those passes", which can also equal wasting *clear* in areas that don`t need the abrading, is one reason why I believe that wetsanding can actually *save* both time and clear in some cases...if the Detailer knows what he`s doing.

    OTOH...when I absolutely *must* polish it, I do a gazillion uber-gentle passes on that `93 Audi of mine because I can`t spare a fraction of the tiny bit of paint it has left. Same with the Jag, but those are such oddball situations that IMO they don`t really apply to Real Life for most people.

  12. #27

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    Re: Why so many hours?

    Quote Originally Posted by skibik View Post
    If I would have had to spend 20-50 hours to do it I would have drove it to a dealership and traded it off.
    I`ve sold off a number of vehicles that I otherwise liked because I simply decided I wasn`t gonna bother giving them the required Detailing Eh, life`s too short to waste on such stuff if the desire isn`t there..or at least *mine* is.

    E.g., I sold the Yukon XLD because keeping that huge black thing perfect was gonna drive me nuts and that wasn`t appropriate for a dog-hauler.

    Oh, and...

    I don`t see how some of you professionals can do this detailing for a living.
    Agree! And that`s one more reason why I`d never make it as a Pro Detailer!
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  13. #28
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    Re: Why so many hours?

    Quote Originally Posted by Mike lambert View Post
    If you’re working on factory paint with car wash damage and swirl marks, what in the world takes so long?
    I read the OP a few times, between last night and today. That part up there^ is key.

    As slow as I am, and I`m quite slow, I haven`t taken THAT long on factory paint. Factory.

    The few times I`ve taken upwards of 40 hours, 2 were resprays that looked similar to the Porsche mentioned in the Whites Details in another post. The other car was also a respray, but it was a single stage paint that I "polished" out by hand. That was not a fun time.

    Also, I don`t consider myself a pro. More than an enthusiast, but definitely not a pro.

  14. #29
    skibik's Avatar
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    Re: Why so many hours?

    Quote Originally Posted by Accumulator View Post
    I`ve sold off a number of vehicles that I otherwise liked because I simply decided I wasn`t gonna bother giving them the required Detailing Eh, life`s too short to waste on such stuff if the desire isn`t there..or at least *mine* is.

    E.g., I sold the Yukon XLD because keeping that huge black thing perfect was gonna drive me nuts and that wasn`t appropriate for a dog-hauler.

    Oh, and...



    Agree! And that`s one more reason why I`d never make it as a Pro Detailer!
    2 years ago today I got rid of my black headache, I do miss the fun of driving that car though, don`t miss trying to keep it looking nice. A day or two before driving it down the road for a new vehicle I think I did a record time detail job on it(if you could actually call it that). It was a rush job, paint was in nice shape for not touching it for 2-3 years other than washing it regularly and waxing it a handful of times during that period. No polishing, just did a walk around with a big bottle of Ultima Paint Guard Plus that I think I won on this forum. I didn`t think I was putting it on that heavy until I was on the road to the first dealership, I had stop at a convenience store, sun was out and man it looked bad in the sun. Luckily it started raining by the time I got to the dealership so it wasn`t so noticeable wet. That first dealership was the only one I made it to. I did take a look into it after they posted the car for sale and they did a pretty good job cleaning it up, although they ruined it by putting there big dealership lettering in white on the trunk lid.
    Dean.

  15. #30

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    Re: Why so many hours?

    skibik- At least you enjoyed that car! I...sigh...simply cannot drive something that`s not basically marring-free Seeing anything I can correct simply means it doesn`t leave the garage until I have

    I did let things go back in the day when I decided to get serious about my education, but even then I had a "good" car I could drive that was really nice.

    These days, I could no more drive a correctibly marred car than wear a stained or wrinkled shirt...and no I`m not saying that as if it`s a good thing.

 

 
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